Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the Russia’s State Duma and a key spokesman for the nation’s cryptocurrency laws course of, claimed that he has by no means owned any Bitcoin (BTC).
Aksakov mentioned that he doesn’t maintain any Bitcoin and sure will not, as the federal government has prohibited officers from buying crypto, native information company TASS experiences Thursday.
The official went on to say that he was prepared to purchase some Bitcoin as an funding earlier than the ban got here into pressure final yr. Nonetheless, he thought that the value was too excessive on the time:
“I needed to purchase solely in an effort to accumulate. However Bitcoin had already surged an excessive amount of, and I used to be upset about spending cash. If it had price 100 rubles, I’d have purchased it.”
Within the interview, Aksakov additionally argued that Bitcoin shouldn’t be out there to unqualified traders because of its excessive volatility. He additionally touched upon the event of Russia’s crypto tax regime, noting that crypto tax experiences are presently made on a voluntary foundation as a draft invoice that might make reporting necessary has solely handed its first studying in parliament.
Aksakov is a significant monetary official in Russia who serves as chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Monetary Markets in addition to a member of the Financial institution of Russia’s Nationwide Banking Council. Aksakov has emerged as a significant Bitcoin critic, predicting final yr that BTC had no future.
Aksakov’s remarks come shortly after one other regulatory initiative steered to partially elevate the nation’s ban on crypto funds in late Could. The nation formally enforced the ban in January as a part of its main cryptocurrency regulation, “On Digital Monetary Belongings.”